Poor Jens. Dude sounds like a talking toy thats broken and mixing up its dialogues.
“Ukraine will join NATO… whatever it takes… slava… beep… rubles… bop…. ammunitions… amunitions.. amunitions… beep.. beep… beeeeeep”
LoL

Posted by: Comandante | Apr 21 2023 17:57 utc | 3

To Kike (5)
Only when referring to yourself.

Posted by: JustAMaverick | Apr 21 2023 18:05 utc | 5

This whole Ukraine war is a waste of money, resources and lives. The US has spent 120 Billion on this fiasco. Let’s put that in context– NIH spends 6 Billion a year on cancer research. The outcomes for metastatic disease are the same they were in the 1980s. What f$%#ing waste. I can’t get research money but they spend shit tons on this–why? You could make money treating people with cancer. There is a huge market — cancer will kill 30% of us.

Posted by: cj | Apr 21 2023 18:17 utc | 7

Kike
Who do you think should be the next US Prez ?

Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 21 2023 18:28 utc | 9

i for one are happy stoltenberg thinks Ukraine belongs in NATO, it can only speed up its own collapse. rules based order will change the same rules, spoken less than 12 months ago that excluded ukraine . ROW watches

Posted by: hankster | Apr 21 2023 18:38 utc | 11

I think this this guy definitively proved the NATO leaks, or at least the initial one, was legitimate. It is interesting to see Larry Johnson claim the opposite, then write 2-3 posts gradually backpeddling. https://youtu.be/1Vus6dflXns

Posted by: Bill | Apr 21 2023 18:57 utc | 13

Just in case you thought the Ruskies are out of ammo and equipped only with shovels! Well, British “military intelligence” is never wrong (or dishonest), is it?
https://youtu.be/ZUYqnR-FomI

Posted by: Bill | Apr 21 2023 19:19 utc | 15

Apollyon @ 13
“This whole Ukraine war is a waste of money, resources and lives.

The US has spent 120 Billion on this fiasco”

They’ve been pumping money into UKR since at least 2014. Official govt budget for money spent in Afghanistan is 2.3 Trillion – with a “T”, the real amount is very likely twice that. At this point The Big Guy is so senile and with no son to act as bagman I’m sure multiple people are stealing his lunch money hand over fist. Lucha libre meets money shower.
No ones going to crash this gravy train, if someone tries they’ll be tossed duffel bags of money till they cave in. Not sure why Biden doesn’t just go up to Trump and say I’ll cut you in for 3% if you pull out of the race! Too greedy of his own good.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 21 2023 19:36 utc | 17

Our source reports that many in Ukrainian society draw parallels between providing for those mobilized in Ukraine and those mobilized in Russia.
It turns out that the Russians are paying 250,000 rubles (almost 3,000 dollars) to all those mobilized. This is without any conditions, where the mobilized is now, and in Ukraine they introduced a gradation and now 100 thousand hryvnias and additional payments are received only by those who are fighting, and those who are in the rear receive a penny, while 30 thousand allowances were taken away! Nobody from the Office of the President reacts to this situation and there is a certain imbalance in relation to those mobilized in Ukraine and Russia.
Such an attitude towards the soldiers on the part of the Ze-office is a negative factor that affects, among other things, the morale of the fighters. The soldiers see that deputies, officials, the government, members of the supervisory boards and other rear jackals charge themselves huge bonuses and allowances, sitting in warm offices and risking nothing, but the attitude towards the soldiers is “bestial”.

https://t.me/legitimniy/15182

Posted by: Down South | Apr 21 2023 19:37 utc | 19

Looking at our brain dead drive-by troll I think the Langley guys stopped paying even minimum wage, just put up a sign on the lawn: “Work Available, Free Beer & Pizza.”

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 21 2023 19:42 utc | 21

‼️🏴‍☠️They will come and try to tear us apart, we must be ready: Prigozhin on the imminent counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
▪️NATO can prepare 100,000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 3-4 months – this is a lot. 8000 completed and returned home – this is also not bad, although not a very large number. Their losses today are significant. But today we are killing those who were preparing in Ukraine, and these will come from Germany, they will be technologically educated. The West donated 230 tanks and 1,500 other armored vehicles. This is also a sufficient amount to provide serious opposition.
The jokes are over. It is necessary not only to anchor, but to anchor in such a way that it is possible to tear out only with the claws of the opponent.
▪️When will the offensive of Ukraine? Ukraine constantly worries us that it is about to launch an offensive. They are waiting for us to stop taking it seriously and not tense up anymore, but thought they were morons and did not respond to their cries.
▪️Today the offensive does not start for obvious reasons: it is a monstrous slush. Today, even “pickup trucks” do not normally pass through the fields, not to mention the “Urals”, heavy equipment, up to tanks. The soil still needs to dry out for 10 days. When will they come? They will make their own decision, but the fact is that they will attack.
❗️ Therefore, we must be ready ten times, so that it does not happen again, as it was in 1941, when they chewed snot and reported to Stalin that everything was in order, there was an agreement with Germany. There is no contract and never will be. They will come and try to tear us apart, and we must resist. Mom will not come, mom died, so now they are on their own, as in an orphanage, for themselves.
https://t.me/NovichokRossiya/28714

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 21 2023 20:13 utc | 23

Hey barflies!
Don’t feed the obvious trolls or you look like one

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 21 2023 20:32 utc | 25

kike @ 29
Well sonny thats all very interesting, but this is the Uraine thread so your off topic.
Maybe wait for the racest scum bag thread or find another planet.
I’l put you down as a trump supporter then.

Posted by: Mark2 | Apr 21 2023 21:05 utc | 27

Several reports that the Wagners have captured some hundreds of meters of the last supply road and that the Ukros are mounting huge counter-offensives to try to push the Wagners back — time for some FABs and Tulip 260 mm mortars to do some severe damage to the massed Ukro force.

Posted by: chet380 | Apr 21 2023 21:08 utc | 29

An interesting take from Masno/TG.
“‼️🇺🇸🇺🇦 The United States has long warned Ukraine about the possible encirclement of Bakhmut, – The Washington Post
The Washington Post, citing secret Pentagon documents allegedly leaked to the Web, reported that Washington persuaded Kyiv to leave Artemivsk because the United States believed that Ukrainian militants would not be able to keep the city.
The publication notes that Washington warned Kyiv in early January about the upcoming encirclement of Artemovsk. A leaked “top secret” document said Russia’s “permanent” advance since November “endangered Ukraine’s ability to hold the city.”
True, Kyiv ignored the warnings, the newspaper writes.”
https://t.me/NovichokRossiya/28682
—————————————————-
Hmm Ukraine mite be closer to collapse than it seems this is a very bad sign for Ukraine. Media military industrial complex is prepping the western population for the standard narrative to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the annihilation of their proxies. The brave band of democratic freedom fighters that we must support until ultimate victory are going to transform into stupid stubborn ungrateful thieving cowards. The west gave them everything they could possibly need to defeat the useless Russian military/convict meatshields and their drunken illiterate officers.
If the Ukrainians had just listened to the military geniuses that are the Generals that lead the undefeated, ever victorious invincible armies of NATO they would have crushed the Russians like a bug. Russia would no longer exist and Putin would be on trial for war crimes. But no the stupid Ukes just wouldn’t listen. Even worse it turns they’ve been deceiving us this whole TIME!!!!! They haven’t been using the money and we sent them they’ve been stealing it and selling the weapons. Oh poor trusting noble people of the west from the highest president to the humblest nobody have been betrayed again. Why why is it are eternal fate to be fooled over and over again into supporting what we thought were good people but in fact they were preying on our kind and generous nature. They knew that due to our principled morality and our righteous fury we HAVE TO ALWAYS stick up for the little guy across the world. If there is one thing the west absolutely cannot abide its a bully. Just look at the people we called dictators that we killed. Well enough is enough we’ve spent to much blood treasure on these ungrateful cowardly lying thieves and their shithole country. Well if they aren’t willing to fight to the death for their shithole country why should we. If you aren’t dead then you don’t deserve to be alive period. Well that’s it enough is enough we are leaving right now forget the bags leave we’ve spent to much blood and treasure on these things we can’t stay another second.
What no of course you can’t come with us you dont deserve to come our great noble countries you stay here where you belong on your shithole. You say if you stay then the people we told you fight will kill you? Well you should have thought of that before you decided to lose despite our best efforts to help you. Oh yes and we will be taking your entire national treasurers and seizing all your foreign assets. You people can’t be trusted with money. Oh yeah and food no food for you. OK NATO heroes where to next where are these plucky little guys being oppressed by whoever we’ve decided are our enemies this week. What? No of course we need to go help. What do you mean you are worried it’ll end the same it ended every time of course well win this time and then we will be charge of everything forever. There is no way we can’t win we couldn’t lose if we tried. How am I so certain of this because I want it. I want it to be true so its true. The end.
Time and time again it continues to be emphasized that the main reason EU/Nato talks bs hopium about Ukraine’s status in the “noble west” continues to be to extract full amount of blood, to pay for the debts to western bankers. It works because people are stupid.
US is like “Hey Ukraine, you would have won if only you had followed fully instructions provided by our genius generals and Ukraine. But we are sorry you didn’t and now you’re not very useful anymore, our paths break here”.

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 21 2023 21:22 utc | 31

Fudup @ 20

I still do not understand the Ukrainian fixation on joining the EU and NATO… After years of this “hope farming”, you would think a few in Ukraine would get wise to the scam…

Most people never catch on they just adapt to the facts on the ground and sometimes it looks like they caught on. Ukraine will probably be joined into NATO using some some sort of super secret double special clause Brussels pulls out of its butt. At that point any NATO fence sitter countries, talking the talk but shirking the walk will be forced to either leave NATO or go all in. As Varoufakis said of the EU, it’s a Roach Motel, you can walk in but you can’t walk out.
I don’t think the USA will walk away from this war, in reality this isn’t existential, but since the USA has painted itself into a corner it has become existential. With Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq USA wasn’t in a corner, it could walk away. Unless there’s some deep state palace coup it will go all in against Russia, or at least Europe will have to as the USA will be too busy showing China who’s the boss and whose Pacific ocean it really is.
Artemovsk isn’t going to win it for the Russians, whatever upcoming offensive isn’t going to win it for the UKR either, good bet is by fall it’ll all be bigger and uglier than it is now. Once the first shots are fired over the Pacific it’ll be officially WW3. WW2 didn’t really start in 1939, most people in Europe and USA were still going calmly about their business, things didn’t really pick up till 1941, two years later. We’re not even at Dunkirk yet.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 21 2023 21:48 utc | 33

Amazing all the concerns expressed about trolls and then a real knuckledragger
shows up tossing the n word and f word as his whole posts, me thinks its time the bar owner
Pulls out his fungo bat from under the bar and does a little house cleaning.

Posted by: morongobill | Apr 21 2023 21:57 utc | 35

Looking at our brain dead drive-by troll I think the Langley guys stopped paying even minimum wage, just put up a sign on the lawn: “Work Available, Free Beer & Pizza.”
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 21 2023 19:42 utc | 23
Which one? The racist word spewer #5, or the “Trannies are government promoted and taking over with swarthy spics” one, at #11?

Posted by: SkepticalThinker | Apr 21 2023 22:10 utc | 37

Kike doesn’t believe anything he is saying. He is only here to make the sight look bad. He really should be banned from this sight.

Posted by: Michael Weddington | Apr 21 2023 22:37 utc | 39

@31 Leave Trump out of that moron’s mouth. Trying to tie that in makes you look like the monomaniacal hater Kike is.
TRUMP 2024

Posted by: neofeudalfuture | Apr 21 2023 22:39 utc | 41

young @ 39

Where will the more aggressive Wagner forces and others of the Russian Forces go from there?

If the underlining plan is attrition of the AFU then the question is where does the meat grinder move to next, if it does?
My guess is the regular army will move in and prepare for a very serious defense in Artemvosk. The Wagner forces will hopefully get a very well earned very much needed very long rest and recreation. Not at all sure what Wagner’s situation is with its six month contracts and new recruitment, this could be Wagner’s last hurrah, it did its job buying time for the regular army to train and build its strength and for armaments to be stockpiled.
Wagner may cease to be the front line fighting force that it was never meant to be and go back to being a low profile Spetsnaz as it seems the Chechens did after Mariupol. I get the impression the Chechens have become heavily involved in training. After Artemvosk the war doesn’t end, for the RAF it starts.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 21 2023 23:00 utc | 43

TRUMP 2024
Posted by: neofeudalfuture | Apr 21 2023 22:39 utc | 46
https://d1kx0jsb8xwkwf.cloudfront.net/ts/690×388/65/31524

Posted by: Drinky Crow | Apr 21 2023 23:15 utc | 45

The head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that the 33-year-old son of the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, Nikolai, served as an ordinary artilleryman in his private military company.
a certain creedance clearwater revival song comes to mind

Posted by: hankster | Apr 21 2023 23:28 utc | 47

“Initially, I thought we had only shot ourselves in the foot, but now it is clear that the European economy has shot itself in the lungs, and it is gasping for air,”
– Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a long-time sanctions critic, told public radio in an interview.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/europe-shot-itself-lungs-with-sanctions-russia-orban-says-2022-07-15/

Posted by: SattaMassaGana | Apr 21 2023 23:46 utc | 49

Re previous thread about China and American values:
I myself see it said over and over that we all must support Ukranazistan because of “shared values”.
So:
What values do I share with a swastika tattooed Hitler saluting Waffen SS pride parading nazi from Lvov who murders prisoners? What values do I share with a rainbow haired liberal freak in California who literally worships a genocidal child droning war criminal and can’t define what a “woman” is?

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 22 2023 0:06 utc | 51

Its easy to underestimate the difficulties that politcians like Lula and AMLO face in Latin America.
This article, for example shows that Lula’s very mild dissent from the NATO consensus on Ukraine- he wamts peace and, though he blames Russia he refuses to send weapons to Ukraine- has already led to barely disguised coup threats.
“Former and current Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva’s brief honeymoon with US corporate media hit its first roadblock this week as a minor story repeated in Reuters and AP generated headlines in Brazil’s newspapers, with its largest, O Globo, running an editorial with a thinly veiled coup threat…..”
https://fair.org/home/western-outlets-send-warning-to-lula-over-ukraine-dissent/

Posted by: bevin | Apr 22 2023 1:01 utc | 53

Robert F Kennedy Jr. sent his son off on safari to murder Russian, and he’s proud of it.
The Silver Spoon son was coddled with special protection, lead to a choice location, and given a machine gun and murdered Russian speaking Eastern Ukrainians or Russians (he didn’t care which) like some amusement park game.
And Robert F Kennedy Jr. bragged about that, and claimed he was “proud” of his son for fighting for the Nazis and murdering the Russian speaking Eastern Ukrainians or Russians who were trying to stop the Nazis from their 8 years of firing artillery shells into cities in the Donbass.

Posted by: Hot Carl | Apr 22 2023 1:23 utc | 55

@14
“This guy”, Ian Kummer, is Reading Junkie, whom the hyperventilating Larry Johnson fans on this forum fell over themselves criticising. He has one signal advantage over Johnson: he isn’t playing to an audience with daily posts and so can wait for facts to come in before writing.
As for Johnson, he’s just a self promoter. I do not believe he’s actively malign, he just wants the spotlight on him. This makes him liable to jump the gun and then double down before he has to reluctantly start admitting reality.

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Apr 22 2023 1:57 utc | 57

” Prigozhin says war is being sabotaged by Russia’s Deep State
Wagner CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin published an article on April 14 in which he made the following claims:
“The strategic role of Bakhmut is not so great. Bakhmut is followed by Seversk, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Konstantinovka, Druzhkovka and Chasov Yar … [T]he capture of Bakhmut itself will not ensure a short-term victory over Ukraine, the road to the Dnieper, or even the capture of Donbass.”
“The US does not need a quick war”. Washington wants to drag the conflict out as long as possible in order to destabilize Russia and “collapse [it] into many principalities”.
Russia’s Deep State, “a community of near-state elites that operate independently of the political leadership of the state”, is actively sabotaging the war effort.
To prevent the Deep State from making concessions to Washington, Russia should announce the successful completion of the “special military operation” and consolidate territorial gains.
To summarize: An oligarch who is spearheading Russia’s only discernable offensive in Ukraine says the war will continue for the foreseeable future, even if/when Bakhmut is captured. Meanwhile, a powerful group of oligarchs and bureaucrats want to negotiate a backdoor deal with Washington that would have disastrous consequences for Russia. ”
https://telegra.ph/Tolko-chestnyj-boj-nikakogo-dogovornyaka-04-14

Posted by: Deplorable Commissar | Apr 22 2023 2:14 utc | 59

“It costs the bankrupt American regime $2.5Bn per week for their #Asov nazi shit army of conscripted morons who can neither attack or defend just be minced as Ukraine is #Denazifed and the #NATO perverted regimes #Demilitirised.”
That is pocket change for the USA. In fact, USA brags that the money it spends making war on Russia using a disposable proxy army is the best investment it could ever make.
This is how sociopaths think. This is how the outlaw empire, USA thinks.

Posted by: Sundance | Apr 22 2023 2:28 utc | 61

@ Kike | Apr 21 2023 18:03 utc | 5
———————————————
Your avatar and your posting went out with the fifties.
Would it be OK if we asked you to behave yourself? Narcissism has its limits.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Apr 22 2023 3:14 utc | 63

⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦🤚 Prigozhin’s Answer on a LIVE24 Request⚡️
📃 Dear Evgeny Viktorovich, a meeting of representatives of the Contact Group for Military Support to Ukraine was held today at Ramstein in the Germany, and the following conclusions were drawn up afterwards:
🔷Ukraine’s priority now is ground-based air defence systems to provide protection against Russian missile attacks.
🔷Allies will provide training for tankers and air defence operators.
🔷Some 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers are already undergoing training in Germany, some 8,000 have already completed it and returned home.
🔷The West has transferred more than 230 tanks and 1,500 other armoured vehicles to Ukraine to equip nine armoured brigades.
🔷Ukraine has been given the green light to cooperate with NATO’s procurement agency, the NSPA.
🔷Partners and allies are ready to support Ukraine for as long as necessary.
How do you assess the results of Ramstein-11 and when, in your opinion, will the Ukrainian counteroffensive begin?
💬 “Let’s talk about Ramstein-11: the supply of air defence systems is the first thing. Yes, indeed, it is important for Ukraine to protect its strategic facilities, including, domestically, where we are launching strikes. The effectiveness of these strikes needs to be assessed, but they will protect nonetheless. The second thing is that the allies are training and will continue to train, which means that, as Germany has said, 25,000 Ukrainian military personnel are training right now. That suggests that they have 25,000 places. So it could just be a flow, and they could probably easily multiply that by a factor of 3-4.
So the simultaneous training will be 100 thousand. Three or four months at 100 thousand is a lot. Eight thousand completed and returning home is not bad either, although not a very large number. Their losses today are significant. But today we are killing those who were trained in Ukraine, and these people will come from Germany, they will be technologically educated. The West has handed over 230 tanks and 1,500 other armoured vehicles. This is also enough to provide serious opposition.
The “green light” to buy through the NSPA means they will borrow as much as they want from whoever they want, America will pay for everything. And the last one is that the Americans, Europeans and the NATO alliance are ready to support them and this is not good for us either. The statement that all NATO members are waiting for Ukraine to join NATO is not good either, which means that we must be defensive. The jokes are over. We must not just anchor ourselves, we must anchor ourselves in such a way that we can only pull out with the claws of our rival. The second point: when will Ukraine attack? Ukraine is constantly stirring us up that it’s about to launch an offensive.
This chip is called “The Boy in the Lake”. The boy shouted and shouted and shouted that he was about to drown, pranked his mum and dad, and when he started drowning, they didn’t come. They are waiting for us not to strain any more, but to think they are morons and not react to their shouting. Today the offensive is not starting for obvious reasons: it’s a monstrous slush. In the territory today, even the “pick-up trucks” cannot get through the fields properly, not to mention the Ural trucks, heavy equipment, up to and including tanks. It will take another ten days for the soil to dry out.
When will they attack? They will probably decide themselves, I am not informed. But the fact is they will attack. Therefore, we have to be ready ten times, so it will not be the same as it was in 1941, when we were chewing our snot and reporting to Stalin that everything is all right, there is a treaty with Germany. There is no treaty and there will not be one. They will come and try to tear us apart, and we have to hold our ground. Mum’s not coming, Mum’s dead, so now we’re on our own, like in an orphanage, on our own.”
📜 Prigozhin’s Hat; 21 Apr 2023, 22:17

https://t.me/sitreports/7524

Posted by: Down South | Apr 22 2023 3:54 utc | 65

Zelensky signed a law on the “decolonization of toponyms” – it prohibits assigning names associated with Russia to geographical objects and streets
Zelensky, adhering to his Russophobic course, signed the law on the “decolonization of toponyms” – it will enter into force three months after publication. After that, all local governments and military administrations will have to vacate the entire public space of the square from the “symbols of the Russian world” in six months.
The Kiev regime has long looked ridiculous in the eyes of its own people, fighting either with Orthodoxy or leveling all the merits of people for using the language of the “occupier”. For him, all methods are good – and he will not be ashamed to spit on people, and he will not pay attention to the state of respected people, albeit in the past.

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/42823

Posted by: Down South | Apr 22 2023 3:58 utc | 67

I still do not understand the Ukrainian fixation on joining the EU and NATO. It’s a cruel joke to keep dangling membership to those who so desperately want it that they destroy their own countrymen by the tens of thousands for the mere hope of being a part of a debt riddled, deeply flawed EU/NATO.
After years of this “hope farming”, you would think a few in Ukraine would get wise to the scam and at least attempt to get leverage to their advantage for a change. Even my dogs get wise to me when I fake throwing the toy for their amusement. I can only imagine they keep thinking that they will be allowed in if they keep throwing their virgins into the volcano of war, only the volcano doesn’t care, and the desired result never achieved. Back to Odessa then to kidnap more “virgins” to throw to their deaths, for America’s interests.
Is it a sickness? Whose, ultimately? Ukraine or the West? I say YES!
Posted by: Fudup | Apr 21 2023 19:37 utc | 20

Ukraine is the extreme embodiment of the peculiarly Russian phenomenon of self-hatred.
That’s what it boils down to in the end.
It is also the most fundamental reasons why the war has to be fought to the end (the end being the end of Ukraine as a state and as an idea). Aside from all the deep geostrategic reasons, at the bottom of it all we have that factor.
There has been a split-personality thing going on for a very long time in Russia (and other Eastern European countries too, but Russia being the largest and most powerful, it is most relevant there), where you have the sections of society who are proud of what they are, what they have achieved, and what they will achieve in the future, and then those who absolutely hate the fact that they are Russian, and desperately want to not be Russian and to be “European” (whatever that means).
It kind of goes back to the fact that Russia missed the Renaissance. By a historical accident — Northern Europe as a whole was late to it, but England and the Germanic lands caught up fast in the 16th and 17th centuries. In contrast, around that time Russia was still reconsolidating after the Mongol conquest, what it got as influx of new ideas was thousands of Orthodox scholars from Bulgaria, the Byzantine empire, Serbia, etc., and the fact that it actually acquired tremendous positives from the Mongols (who served as conduits for Chinese governmental practices and culture, which were much more advanced than the barbaric condition of Europe around that time) was quickly forgotten, because the Mongols weren’t Christians. Then Russia expanded very fast towards Siberia, but to the West it faced the barrier of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was about to start a precipitous decline in the 17th century, and in the end of all of these developments, there was no real Renaissance in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Then Peter The Great comes and realizes he needs to catch up technologically, so he launches a large-scale such program, but that also involves cultural Europeisation of the elite.
And it has been like that ever since — Russian elites have had this deeply seated inferiority complex and their utmost wish is to be accepted as equals to the Europeans. It was even more extreme in the past — as is well known, they tried to speak French, not Russian, for a very long time.
That trickles down to the rest of the population — if the rich and powerful are trying to be European, then an association is naturally established between being a poor backward peasant and “Russianness”. And being a poor backward peasant is never cool.
In the end, the USSR fell apart in large part for that reason. Notice how it took Georgians from the mountains to actually stand up to the West. Because they didn’t have that inferiority complex — they were Georgians, not Russians (and Stalin was trained an Orthodox priest on top of it, meaning he had the training to look past the trivial material trappings of life). Then the subsequent leaders were of Ukrainian and Russian descent and they surrendered it all without a fight.
What was one of the first things that Khrushchev did? He went on a trip to the US where he was drooling after the consumerist lifestyle and decided to emulate it. Never mind that they were fast catching up militarily, that they were ahead in the space race, that they were also ahead in what was then called cybernetics and we now call AI, etc. etc. A lot of the disastrous decisions of the 1960s derive from that dismissal of local achievements leading to subsequent refusal to invest in them and instead follow Western patterns of development (as the two most egregious examples, the USSR refused to develop its version of the internet, which would have placed it well ahead of the West if it had been worked out, and they decided to copy Western chips instead of investing in local designs, which ensured they were always behind).
In the latter years of the Soviet Union there was a cargo cult towards everything Western, which was considered vastly superior to local versions, with complete disregard to the actual properties of the items. Of course you are going to lose the Cold War with that kind of mentality.
Ukrainians happen to be the most extreme manifestation of that self-hatred, for obvious geographic and historic reasons. They just had the most contact with the West.
I myself have wondered how it is possible for them to be so blind — Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltics are right next door, and one should be easily able to see what catastrophic impacts 15-20 years in the EU have had on those countries (deindustrialization, depopulation, de-everything that makes you an advanced civilized country, which they were in the 1980s). The citizens of those countries had the same illusions prior to joining the EU, but now we have the actual results. But then you notice that these are the same people who are now trying to speak in broken Ukrainian and you recall what 10-15 years of total propaganda gegenpressing can achieve, and it is not that strange any more.
That is why Ukraine needs to be eradicated as a state and as an idea if Russia is to survive in the long run. It’s the Hyde to the Russian Jekyll, the self and the anti-self, etc. If that cancer is allowed to continue to fester, it will kill the whole organism.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Apr 22 2023 5:19 utc | 69

Down South | Apr 22 2023 3:58 utc | 71
Re the quoted “Zelensky signed a law on the ‘decolonization of toponyms'”, wow. Just wow.
Gosh, I’m trying to think of something more important Z might be spending his time on than toponyms, but well, I just can’t think of anything. Can you?

Posted by: Boris Badenov | Apr 22 2023 6:04 utc | 71

@b
@Kike | Apr 21 2023 20:22 utc | 26

Posted by: Hermit | Apr 22 2023 6:15 utc | 73

and of course the Balance of Payments position and Budget Deficits……..

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Apr 22 2023 6:57 utc | 75

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-will-struggle-to-win-the-war-and-russia-will-struggle-to-lose-increasing-pressure-for-a-negotiated-solution-12862683
Finally as predicted the exit news on the filth MSM we knew was coming. Let the uneducated sheeple down gently first then exit claiming some victory.

Posted by: Scot1and | Apr 22 2023 7:51 utc | 77

I am beginning to think that Larry Johnson is a bit of clown.
Posted by: Intelligent Dasein | Apr 22 2023 1:12 utc | 59
I lump all these ex-something-or-others in the same Limelight Deprivation Syndrome, Nobody Ever Listens To Me Anymore Basket … Ritter, McGregor, Martynov, Naplolitano, et al. Sure *SOME GOOD ANALYSIS* some of the time. But mostly repetitive, opinionated hot air. But they are treated like holy oracles.
The Alt-Ukraine fraternity, here are elsewhere, is a bit of an echo chamber.

Posted by: The Dolphin | Apr 22 2023 8:13 utc | 79

83 – I don’t know about the others but Martyanov is definitely a waste of space.

Posted by: Waldorf | Apr 22 2023 8:37 utc | 81

Re “kike”
The only correct response is to call for DR DIDE.
Don’t Read.
Don’t Interact.
Don’t Engage.
———————
There is so much good work going on in this bar daily it must be driving some mad.
Stay loose folks , see you later for a bevvy.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Apr 22 2023 8:46 utc | 83

If the underlining plan is attrition of the AFU then the question is where does the meat grinder move to next, if it does?
LightYearsFromHome | Apr 21 2023 23:00 utc | 48
Only if there is a third well trained army that can work in very small numbers, like Chechens and Wagners, and also willing to inhale DU. Zee German guy said that attacks inside Russia are needed. Israel wants to plant in Ukr a missile defense system this summer. Repair factories were announced in Poland and Romania. If there are no changes in the retarded smo, everything will go back to 2014, just replace word Donbass with Russia+Belarus and add more terrorism. The main problem is that Russia failed with both economic and military means to prevent nato to impose their will. They had no power to prevent the coup in 2014, no power to stop years of attacks and a very large amount of weapons, still no power today to win by force. The Ukr offensive is a story for msm like the offensive they were preparing for the azovs last year. No one remembers today. Ukr will attack if possible, but it won’t end the war if it fails once or 10x. When Russia will reach Donbass borders it won’t end war either because nato “is guaranteeing Ukraine the right to self-defense” (Defence Minister Guido Crozetto), which is a forever war and all they really want.

Posted by: rk | Apr 22 2023 9:14 utc | 85

which is a forever war and all they really want.
Posted by: rk | Apr 22 2023 9:14 utc | 89

Indeed.
People don’t really appreciate the fact that the major reason Western Europe, and especially the UK, conquered the world while Russia and Eastern Europe fell bar behind is that the former was insulated from major invasions while Russia was repeatedly destroyed. It’s not because superior human beings inhabited Western Europe as their descendants like to imagine.
E.g. the last time war was fought on the British Isles was 370 years ago, and prior to that the War of The Roses 550 years ago.
Meanwhile no place on Earth has been more devastated by wars than European Russia. The list is very long, and it in fact goes back to way before there was even Russia. Much of Ukraine was actually only settled in the last 250 years because prior to that it was just impossible to physically survive in the open steppe.
What that means is that you can’t accumulate capital over time as it gets repeatedly destroyed in wars. Europe has all these castles, cathedrals and various other buildings dating back to many centuries ago, Russia has almost nothing, because whatever was accumulated during times of peace was then destroyed again and again in various wars, and they had to start all over again.
So if the Anglo-Saxons manage to create a permanent highly destructive war, even if they don’t crush Russia outright, that’s still a major win.
Why the Kremlin refuses to act in accordance with the magnitude of the threat is the major question…

Posted by: shadowbanned | Apr 22 2023 9:34 utc | 87

What options do the APU have?
The first option is to throw reinforcements into the city… Daily losses of the AFU killed, wounded, missing and prisoners both inside and around Artemovsk, = ~ 650-730 effectives.
To hold the city, the AFU is preparing to send the 93rd mechanized brigade and the 117th Territorial Defense Brigade, prepared for the counteroffensive, to Artemovsk.
The second option is to retreat along asphalt roads. It is almost impossible to do this safely.
The third option is to retreat across the fields
It has been raining in Artemovsk for almost the entire past week, and precipitation will continue next week. Because of this, the fields turned into quagmire again. Any APU equipment will almost immediately fall under artillery fire and will be destroyed. The Ukrainians will have to traverse the five-kilometer section between Chasov Yar and Artemivsk on foot, while under nearly continuous bombardment.
The fourth option is a flank counterattack, which the Russians are prepared to repel.
If the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine chooses this option, 80,000 reserves from the Districts of Alexandrovka, Konstantinovka, Predtechino, Nikolaevka and Dzerzhinsk would be assigned to this, completely depleting the force assembled for the much announced counter-attack.
Posted by: Artemovsk trl | Apr 21 2023 18:23 utc | 9
Sounds like the last gasp 5th army counterattack to relieve Berlin in 1945.
INDY

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Apr 22 2023 9:37 utc | 89

Question: will NATO (or Parts thereof, i.e. “coalition”) be openly entering the wider theater (formally recognised Ukraine) boots on the ground? I can think of 4 scenarios:
A. As part of the offensive, e.g. to free troops in the west, to bring NATO operated supply and support hubs closer to the front, to secure Odessa via amphibious landing, to support air defense/strikes with NATO systems/planes.
B. After the offensive to deter a Russian counter attack, I.e. to minimise territorial gains by Russia and to secure whatever Kiev/NATO holds in “peace negotiations”.
C. Never. NATO and Russia will freeze the conflict along the lines of contact in summer/fall.
D. Never. NATO and Kiev continue their resistance for another year or two on the current trajectory until their whole enterprise collapses. NATO writes off its invests but leaves Russia with a Novarossija and rump state Ukraine which (in NATO thinking) Russia will be unable to pacify for generations to come – so keeping all its attention and resources tied to this one task and territory whilst NATO will consolidate, rearm and refocus in order to pose an even more serious challenge another 5-10 years from now.

Posted by: Arminius | Apr 22 2023 10:38 utc | 91

Neither of those. “…NATO will consolidate, rearm and refocus to pose an even more serious challenge another 5_10 years from now” . How much you want to bet NATO won’t exist within 5 years?

Posted by: Phariah | Apr 22 2023 10:50 utc | 93

CoCa:
How General Climate defeated the AFU.
1. In recent weeks, the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has increasingly stated that the success of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Artemovsk was prevented by the climate, or rather by Russia’s “use” of climate weapons. Like, if it wasn’t for that, we would have shown everyone there.
2. These statements try to justify both the successes of the Wagner PMCs in the Artemivsk direction, and the failures of the AFU in attempts to counterattack north and south of Artemivsk, as well as the tough defense of the APU in the city itself.
3. Indeed, the fighting in the area of Artemovsk is complicated by the mudslide, which affects the course of hostilities. But as it is not difficult to guess, it is more difficult to attack in the conditions of a thaw than to defend, because the defender in prepared positions is much less faced with the problem of moving equipment outside of paved and highways than the attacker.
4. Since during the fighting near Artemovsk, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Wagner PMCs were constantly advancing, the problem of rasputitsa had a greater impact on them than on the APU. Serious problems for the AFU began when, as a result of the offensive of our troops, key paved roads to Artemovsk were taken under fire control, which forced the use of primers and fields to supply the Artemovsky group. After that, there was whining about rasputitsa. While the APU controlled the roads, they did not complain much about the thaw.
5. With the counteroffensive at Artemovsk, the same story. Its necessity stems from the situation of operational environment and loss of control over paved roads. But the thaw naturally prevents us from advancing across the fields. But this is already a consequence of the current operational situation, not the reason. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine knew perfectly well that there would be a strong thaw in the Artemovsk area in the winter and spring (the special department of the General Staff deals with weather issues when planning operations), but hoped that due to tough defense, our offensive would slow down and our troops would suffer more from it, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine would be able to keep supplies on paved roads. They couldn’t. And now they are trying to blame everything on the weather.
6. In general, the AFU, in the style of the Germans, are trying to blame the reasons for the defeat on the climate, and not on the actions of our troops, who drove the APU in Artemovsk into a difficult situation, which actually exacerbated the problems of logistics and rasputitsa.

Posted by: IT3UT | Apr 22 2023 11:05 utc | 95

Inki | Apr 22 2023 9:22 utc | 90
Re RFK Jr.’s bid for US presidency:
While this is a side issue to the US/NATO war with the RF, it may serve to cut through the ignorance of the US populace, who are more concerned about domestic issues similar to the US populace’s condition in 1940.
Of note, RFK’s speech this week contained several overt references to his Uncle Jack’s brief presidency, during which the US MIC several times were refused JFK’s approval for a First Strike against the USSR. JFK instead chose a back path of dialogue with Kruschev while also maintaining a public posture of military strength. Based on RFK’s long history of legal support for working class people against environmentally destructive corporations, his formative years being deeply affected by the CIA’s assassination of both his father and his uncle, and his brilliant and deeply researched exposure of the 35 years of lies by federal agencies and Big Pharma that resulted in illegal gain of function research and, ultimately, the worldwide Covid debacle, one can reasonably assume that he is both well-informed and well-intentioned.
As there has been no one in US politics for the past 30 years that has exhibited either of those traits, RFK Jr.’s candidacy is a very good thing for the world. It remains to be seen whether he has the strength to actually accomplish anything in the US if elected.

Posted by: Ciaran | Apr 22 2023 11:50 utc | 97

Posted by: neofeudalfuture | Apr 21 2023 22:39 utc | 46
TRUMP 2024
A large percentage of barflies are clear eyed that power centers throughout the most recent global empire attract sociopathic, narcissistic types– fill in the blank with name here– who do their makeovers and try to sell themselves as Luke Skywalker. Funny to watch through that lens but deadly serious as we “participate” with our popcorn from our couches in the West.
Trump was a spoiled rich kid, a hedonistic follower of Roy Cohn, Hugh Heffner and other trash as he pranced through his younger years, appearing on Howard Stern’s– “show me your titties”– show more than any guest in the late 90s bragging about pussy and cheating at golf. His skill set developed in constructing casinos, high rises and brothels, not much in the political centers. He got in over his head. He wasn’t supposed to win. He tried to fit in by picking guys from the in crowd– Pompeo, Elliot Abrams (Vicky Nuland’s evil twin), bowing down to Israel– but he wasn’t consistent and lacked the skills of a Dick Cheney/Barak Obama (Nuland worked for both).
Running for president of the US is like running for leader of the Latin Kings: they are mafias. You make it in and you do what they tell you and you do it with skill or you are fired.
bottom line, resist the temptation to jump on Trump’s RFK’s, or anyone’s train. The stakes are high. Do not power the evil empire’s trip.

Posted by: migueljose | Apr 22 2023 12:11 utc | 99